Avalanche

Avalanche: South Hollow

Eric and Amy FlygareLogan
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Quick report

Slope Angle
38°

Avalanche

Slab Width
6 m
Trigger Type
Natural
Vertical Fall
122 m
Avalanche Type
Wet Loose
Slab Thickness
15 cm
Start Zone Aspect
Southeast
Avalanche Problem
Wet Snow
Start Zone Elevation
2682 m

We headed up Prov Canyon today to check the conditions. On the way up we noticed an old wind slab avalanche from the wind event last Tuesday. The slide occurred on a steep South facing slope at the bottom of the gravel pit.

We headed up to Millville Peak and dug a pit at about 9100 feet on a Northwest facing, 38 degree slope. Pit tests showed a compression test failure on 26 hits on a graupel layer down about 10 inches. With one additional tap, the column failed on the interface layer between old November snow and the solstice storm snow down about 22 inches on 1-2mm facets. Extended Column tests failed on the faceted layer on about 27 taps but did not propagate (ECTN26). Total snow depth at 9100 feet is around 40 inches.

We noticed some significant wet sluffs in South Hollow. The slides started as wet snow fell off some cliffs and fanned out to 15 to 20 feet. The slides ran on a southeast facing slope between 8800 and 8200 feet and left a 2-3 pile of debris at the bottom.

We found the best riding on slopes face northeast to southeast. The Southeast facing slopes started getting pretty wet at mid-day and produced decent sized rollerballs on steep slopes.